rtJMBER FIFTEEN DECEMBER 1974 TEN CENTS Gallagher attacks union as industry collapse looms aces ereat Growing unemployment and pressure from the em­ with the NSW Branch leadership before union mem­ fer). The 17 who refused to join the (Federal)1 ployers and from the employers' state are forc­ bers on the job sites, saying "we are here to take union then refused to work with the others, and ing open rifts in the bureaucratic hierarchy of over the NSW branch, not to indulge in silly de­ were promptly sacked by the company. However, the Australian trade union movement. While the bate before supporters of Mr' Owens" (quoted in most returned to the site the following week de overwhelming majority of union officialdom backs Morning Herald, 15 October 1974)1 manding reinstatement, only to be escorted off the central policies of Hawke -- wage restraint Whatever Gallagher may say, the employers have the site by cops -- while Federal BLF officials and accepting unemployment -- sectional interests shown consistent support for his takeover, and stood by. Crane operators (members of the and inter-bureaucratic rivalries produce serious have pursued a highly conscious, organised cam­ Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Associ­ divisions as officials, caught in a bind between paign closely coordinated with Gallagher's 'ef~ ation (FEDFA)) who had walked off on 18 October capitalists demanding concessions and union mem­ forts. On 21 October the NSW MBA held a special to protest the Federal BLF supporters' working bers whose living standards are constantly under meeting, and only hours after Gallagher had pro­ on the job now went out again for the same attack, must police the rank and file of the claimed that the takeover effort would continue reason, but also in support of reinstating the unions for the bourgeoisie. announced that the MBA would '''actively encourage" sacked NSW BLF members. Gallagher responded by One of the most criminal results is the war the smashing of NSW BLF green bans by recruiting sending Victorian BLF crane drivers to Sydney tc work the cranes. A ruling in the State Indus­ being waged by Norm Gallagher, General Secretary scab labour. Said Rocher ominously, "judging b'y of the Federal Builders' Labourers' Federation the unemployment we have seen we will have no trial Commission on 31 October required the com- (BLF). against the union's NSW Branch. The split in the BLF is a serious threat to the survival of that union and could completely destroy the possibility of working-class resistance to the imminent massive layoffs and further bankruptcies in the building industry, particularly in NSW. Directly responsible for this disastrous split, Gallagher -- and the Maoist Communist Party of Marxist-Leninist of which he is vice­ chairman -- stand revealed as abject servants of the bosses. Gallagher has tried to subjugate the NSW Branch before. In February of this year, he wrote to the NSW MBA declaring that entry rights for NSW Branch officials to job sites were with­ drawn,~enly inviting anti-union action by the bo"s-ses'. Lat~r, he nleato' fi1<:e'tl\e''NSW"'Bi'atfC'Tt­ to the bosses' courts, but failed. His new take­ over bid began with announcements on the ABC radio program PM on September 9 that the BLF Federal Management Committee (FMC) had decided to take over the NSW Branch; that he would take legal action to seize the property, funds and 22 October -- Police inspector Reid (left) talking to officials of the NSW BLF assets of the NSW Branch; and that he was meet­ after they were removed by cops from the NSW Institute of Technology site on Broadway. ing the same day with representatives of the NSW trouble getting the men" (Sydney Morning Herald, pany to rehire the sacked workers, but Watts re­ MBA to discuss setting up a new branch, with the 22 October 1974). At the same meeting the MBA fused to comply and on 6 November, five NSW BLF aim of extracting a promise from employers to decided to generally favour the Federal branch members and two FEDFA crane drivers occupied two hire only card-carrying members of this bogus by recommending, to MBA members that Federal cranes at the NSWIT site demanding, according to branch (The Australian, 10 September 1974). union officials be given unlimited access to job Owens, that the men be rehired (Sydney Morning These announcements were received with smug sites, while giving access to the officials of Herald, 7 November 1974). During its second satisfaction by the bosses such as RL Rocher, the legitimate NSW union only during smokoes and week, the occupation was abandoned when a goon executive director of the NSW MBA, who declared lunch hours (MBA "All Member Circular No 81/ squad of Gallagher's men threatened to burn down that Gallagher "would be far more likely to be 1974", cited in Digger,S November 1974). This the crane, and police immediately arrested the reasonable" with the bosses than the NSW BLF only confirms the truth of reports from the NSW occupiers (Tribune, 19 No~ember 1974). (quoted in The Australian, 10 September 1974). Branch of pervasive employer pressure on workers The struggle was only confused by the initial to join the Federal union. walk-off of the 17 NSW BLF supporters. It re­ Gallagher gave the MBA good evidence that he flected the policy pushed by the NSW BLF leader­ would be more "reasonable", citing as reasons for So far Gallagher has had little success. It ship and the Communist League (CL) (which has the FMC intervention the NSW Branch's "irrespon­ is probable that he has signed up between 300 and supporters in the union) of striking all jobs sible" militancy, that the NSW Branch had "gone 500 builders' labourers for the Federal branch, where Federal BLF members are employed. (In one too far on green bans", and accusing it of "cre­ and this figure is likely to increase slowly in the immediate future. Aside from threatening case, at Dillinghams in Sydney, this included ating the grounds for deregistration" with "hare­ backing demands that the company fire Vince brained" tactics (BLF Victorian Branch News­ workers who don't join the Federal branch with Ashton, one of Gallagher's appointed organ­ letter, 7 November 1974) -- precisely what the the loss of their job, Gallagher has appealed to MBA has been saying for years. However, in the conservative workers who resent time and money isers -- The NSW Builder's Labourer, undated.) face of such obvious collusion with the MBA lost due to strikes. It appears that on this The FEDFA has likewise decided not to work with Gallagher has constantly shifted his ground in basis, one whole job in Parramatta (about 150) Federal BLF members. trying to justify his takeover bid. Many of joined Gallagher's union. Even though Gallagher's Federal branch in NSW Gallagher's charges against the NSW BLF or its Characteristic of both Gallagher's behaviour is completely bog~s, the Federal BLF is not. officials have been concocted only after he an­ and the response of the NSW Branch leadership Gallagher is completely to blame for splitting nounced the takeover on 9 September. The most have been the events at the EA Watts company NSW the Federation. However, this must be made persistent concern alleged financial chicanery by Institute of Technology (NSWIT) site on Broadway. crystal clear not only to those builders' NSW branch officials; but not a shred of real Here Gallagher intersected a dispute in progress labourers in NSW who have been cajoled, duped or evidence of corruption has yet been produced. over the obstruction by Watts of a transfer·of a threatened into joining the fake Federal branch, But even if Gallagher's charges were true, his builders' labourer from another site to the but also to those throughout Australia who have wrecking operation in NSW would be just as crimi­ Broadway job. Workers on the NSWIT site resisted been fed Gallagher's poisonous lies. The/Owens/ nal. The fact is that the current Owens-Pringle­ strike action for fear of lost wages. At the Pringle policy allows Gallagher to confuse the issue. In order to isolate Gallagher it is Mundey NSW BLF l~adership, whatever its flaws, same time pressure from the boss to join the fake was elected by an overwhelming majority in Federal union was so great that even Mr Justice necessary, instead of labelling all Federal October 1973 -- and there is no evidence of any Sheehy of the State Industrial Commission com­ branch recruits "scabs", to demonstrate that it irregularity in that election. Gallagher, of mented on it (quoted in ~ibun1, 5 November is the NSW BLF which consistently upholds unity course, did not bother to consult the rank.and 1974). As a result, on October! 18 builders' against the boss, taking action against Federal file in NSW at all before moving in. His com­ labourers on the site voted 19 ito 17 to support branch members only when they refuse ag4inst employer attacks on the NSW Branch -- for plete contempt for the NSW BLF membership came the Federal union, which promi~ed peace (by aban- out when he refused to debate his differences 'doning the defence of the worker seeking a trans- example, when the employer harasses NSW Branch members or victimises them in order to force ac­ ceptance-of~allagher' s splinter branch. " But the blanket tian on these workers by CPAers Owens and Interview with Edmund Samarakkody . .. page 3 Mundey shows their narrow, parochial concerns for /protecting their own base at the expense of a Popular fronts and revolutionary strategy Iserious fight against Gallagher throughout the in Chile ... page 4 ; Federation. Continued on page sj~ I Union leaders refuse to fight layoffs • Unemployment in Australia is now worse than at just no work because 'the PMG had deferred part by most workers, particularly since the union any time since 1948, at an official rate of 3.2 of its order. AMWU State Organiser for Division leadership had been unable to obtain even 32 for percent. The Labor government, "pledged to full 20, Jack Pearson, then proceeded to explain how 32. The tradesmen met separately on Wednesday, employment", has been able to do nothing to halt workers threatened with the sack might be able to and voted to strike until the next morning. At an economic decline international in scope and get aid through government retraining and "em­ the process workers' meeting, the motion for a p, rooted in the basic contradictions of the capi­ ployment assistance" programs! He did not bother strike in solidarity with the tradesmen was de­ talist system. But totally committed to salvag­ to mention that it is official AMWU policy that feated in a close vote. This motion was sup­ ing that system, Gough Whitlam 'has also refused sackings should not be accepted, and that the ported by Pollock -- the only occasion when any to come to the aid of workers who suffer the ef­ AMWU also officially favours a 35 hour week for of the shop stewards supported any real action. d fects of the slump. Instead the whole labour 40 hours' pay. When militants pointed this out, f bureaucracy has called for saving bosses' pro­ Pearson tried to blame the apathy of AMWU members The definitive sellout came on the following t £its by cutting real wages. Whitlam's government for his refusal to provide leadership. These day, when at a third stopwork the shop stewards 1 serves capitalism; a real workers government is measures would have at least provided the possi­ offered only a plan put forward by Campbell and a Pollock to ask the bosses for a week's delay to needed to take society out of the hands of the bility of successfully resisting the sackings, II bourgeoisie and their state apparatus, defending but Pearson refused to recommend, explain or even allow the union to lobby the Labor government for the interests of the working class. Only a .mention them. the restoration of the deferred orders. Confused leadership committed to the revolutionary expro­ and demoralised by the leadership vacuum, most priation of the capitalist class, rather than Thus the union leadership took a completely workers by the end of the day opposed a proposal only patchwork reforms, is capable of dOing so. .defeatist position. This included shop stewards for a strike. Everyone went back to work and the n whose attitudes are representative of the CPA's layoffs were implemented as the company wished, The industries hardest hit by unemployment without even the extra week. have been those such as textiles, electronics and approach, Roy Pollock (chief shop steward at others that are affected by the competition of Plesseys) and Jim Campbell. Throughout, the reformist outlook of the goods imported from Japan and other Asian union officials exacerbated divisions among the A reduction in working hours without loss in countries. Union officials have joined together workers, particularly those between tradesmen pay was needed to defend the threatened jobs, an with capitalists to demand quotas and higher im­ (mostly male native Australian) and process application of the sliding scale of hours. If port tariffs to stop "cheap foreign goods" com­ workers (mostly women and migrants), and between this principle had been won, it would not only peting with Australian products, putting the male and female workers generally. The trades­ have saved the 35 jobs, but prevented further blame for job losses not on the capitalist system men, though often more militant, were also sackings without sacrificing wages. A tradesmen but on overseas workers. The cheaper prices of infected with a degree of craft consciousness, at the first stopwork.meeting moved a resolution imports often stern from the outrageously low seeing themselves as separate from the process for a 32 hour week in the affected sections -- for wages of workers in countries such as Taiwan or workers. While some migrant women supported 32 hours pay, an idea that was widely accepted and South Korea. Yet the union bureaucracy in striking, the core of the opposition came from eventually adopted. Support for this futile Australia refuses to work for international native Australian women process workers. Because scheme to share the poverty was the direct result working-class organisation to help the struggle women workers are victims of the general op­ of the defeatism of fhe union officials, who all of these workers. Inevitably protectionist pression of women in capitalist society, and are went along with it, including Pollock and schemes end up by pitting Australian workers ignored by the unions, it is not surprising that Campbell! When the company flat ly rej ected even against one another, sacrifiting the jobs or they often have anti-union or anti-strike atti­ wages of women workers in favour of men, those of this proposal, the shop stewards meekly acqui­ tudes, and are a conservatising influence. These native Australians at the expense of migrants, or esced. divisions were encouraged by reformists such as Pollock, who informed the women who opposed going those of one union at the expense of another. On Wednesday a second meeting was called to Moreover by promoting national chauvinism these on strike with the tradesmen not to expect the consider what to do after the company rejection, union to help them if they ever got into trouble!. protectionist policies bind the working class to at which rank-and-file militants called for a the Australian capitalists, and divide the work­ united strike of the whole plant against the More retrenchments are apparently due at ing class, making impossible a united struggle to, s~ckings, and for a thirty hour week with no loss Plesseys; under the current union leadership defeat sackings and t~e effects of inflation. in weekly pay. (The same militants also raised there, opposition will be equally ineffective in Especially pernicious has been the role of the the demand that the company's books be opened to the future. What is needed is a leadership com­ "lefts" in the trade-union bureaucracy, such as inspection of workers after continued refusal of mitted to the methods of class struggle, not the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), They the company to make any concessions.) However at cringing class collaboration, and to a full pro­ often call for militant action, but are totally that point, 30 for 40 was regarded as unrealistic gram of political struggle against capitalism .• committed to the perspective of merely reforming capitalism, But economic crises like the current one show the absurdity of expecting any sub­ stantial reforms from the capitalist system. US militants oppose Carmichael ban Thus the CPA in practice behaves no differently In ASp 13. we reported on efforts by supporters tember issue <3.£ l'Jilitant·Auto Wor';'wr (published than the right wing of the bureaucracy, and con­ of the Spartacist League to mobilise opposition by the Militant-Solidarity Caucus of UA\V Local sciously retards the struggle of the workers; to the exclusion of Laurie Carmichael (Amalga­ 9(6) calls for international industri.al action thus its complete suppor,:t for protectionism. mated Metal Workers Union Assistant Federal Sec­ to fight the ban. The ban has also been opposed Typical of what has been happening are the retary) from the United States because of his by militants in other branches of the UAW around membership in the Communist Party of Australia the ·country. recent retrenchments at the Meadowbank factory of (CPA). The law under which the US authorities Although Carmichael at first indicated there Plessey Pacific Ltd, a subsidiary of the British barred Carmichael helps seal off the American would possibly be some industrial action against multinational. The plant, which employs about working class from overseas leftist political US-owned car factories in Australia, nothing was 1000 .and makes telecommunications equipment views. Those kept ou~ include United Sec­ done. The A.t\lWU leadership of which Carmichael is primarily for the P~IG, has not previously been retariat leader Ernest Mandel (also barred from a central part has refused to mobilise to force affected by retrenchments because of its semi­ Australia until recently) and lately Edmund the US government to rescind the ban. In co­ monopoly position. Plessey workers interviewed Samarakkody, an outstanding leader of Trotskyism ordination with the UAW this could have had a by ASp described what happened after shop in Ceylon for over 30 years. powerful impact. A motion passed by the Sydney stewards were informed by the company on Friday The Spartacist League of the United States, re­ Central Branch of the AMWU call ing for mi Ii tant November 15 that 35 workers would be sacked. cognising that international working-class soli­ international action (see ASp no 13,) was effec­ tively shelved by the State Council. There was considerable sentiment for some darity is necessary to fight this attack on action but at a series of stopwork meetings over Australian and American workers, published in The CPA, of which Carmichael is a leading the following week the leadership of the combined Workers Vanguard a letter from a member of the member, restricted itself to a protest in 7~ibune unions at the plant consciously worked to dissi­ A.t\fWU. Although the bureaucrats who lead the and ignored prop6sals by the SL for protest pate the struggle. At the first meeting on United Auto Workers Union invited Carmichael to action. It is the democratic rights of workers, Monday November 18, Electrical Trades Union shop the US, they have not made any real effort to op­ and especially AMWU members, which are at issue steward John Percer "explained" that there was pose the ban. But militants in the union have and the CPA's refusal to defend them is a condem­ attempted to mobilise against it. The 13 Sep- nation of its cowardly reformism .• AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST a monthly organ of revo 1uti onary ;4arxi sm for Crumbling US Healyites dump leader the rebirth of the Fourth International The United States Workers League was the oldest the pursuit of transient organisational oppor­ and largest Healyite colony. Led from the outset tunities. pub 1is hed by the Centra.l Commi ttee of the by Tim Wohlforth, parading in his Struggle for Now the rot has reached Wohlforth himself. At Spartacist League of Australia and Marxism in the US as the first real American a recent "celebration"-of "Ten Years of the Marxist, the WL has of late been showing all the Bulletin" an audience in New York was introduced ~ew Zealand, section of the international signs of advanced decomposition. to the new WL National Secretary, Fred Mazelis. Spartacist tendency Its work in the unions, never very great, has Wohlforth's demise, which was engineered with the dwindled to nearly zero. It has long abandoned direct connivance of his former mentor, Gerry any perspective of struggling against other left­ B i I I Logan (Cha i rman) Healy, is apparently a last-ditch attempt to stem EDITORIAL BOARD: wing organisations either in the trade unions or David Reynolds (managing) the flow of desertions. But the WL's cynicism elsewhere, and rather than Marxist analysis of David Scott (labour) continues in the sacking of its founding leader developments in the workers movement the pages of John Sheridan (production) without a single word of denunciation, self­ its paper, the Bulletin, are confined to endless criticism or comment. Joel Sal inger (circulation) hackneyed tracts (eg on the 19th-century American No doubt the Australian SLL leadership will Adaire Hannah utopians), "sensational" exposes of the "crimes claim that Wohlforth was incompetent and just did GPO Box 3473, GPO Box 2339, of Chappaquiddick" and the like. not understand "dialectics", and will uphold Sydney, , Indicative of the acute malaise has been the Gerry Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party as the NSW, 2001. , 3001. departure of the bulk of the WL leadership, in­ "real thing". But the collapse of the WL rep­ cluding Lucy St John, Dennis O'Casey, Dan Fried resents the failure of its frenzied opportunism (02) 660-7647 (03) 429-1597 and Juan Farinas. The exodus has taken place on and resultant cynicism, its hysterical crisis­ an apolitical individual basis rather than re­ mongering, its almost complete liquidation into SUBSCRIPTIONS: One dollar for the next sulting from overt political differences. The WL its fake "mass paper", its apolitical dances twelve issues (one year). depended heavily on this tiny pool, but their passed off as "youth work". And it is a fact AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACrST is registered at the GPO, flight shows how even the most cynical of oper­ jSydney for posting as a newspaper -- Category C. that these policies are imposed on both the WL ators can take just so many failed get-rich-quick and the SLL by Healy himself. The demise of the schemes and is a crushing refutation of the WL is due to the bankruptcy of Healyism. In AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST will not appear in Jan­ liquidationist and anti-bolshevik methodology of Australia the SLL is already displaying similar uary; the next issue will appear in February 1975 subordinating program and political principles to symptoms of decay .• Page Two - AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST December 1974 An interview with Edmund Samarakkody reprin1ed fnIn Wcrkers Vanguard no 55, 25 Detmer 1914 We print be low an interview with Edmund ~ Samarak­ It was in this context that the United that Mrs Bandaranaike'wanted, and this speech was kody, spokesman of the Revolutionary Workers National Party developed its propaganda and op­ a virtual declaration against Marxism and the Party of Ceylon. The interview took place on portunistically sought to raise the question of left. This is precisely what was the reality. October 15 in Toronto, where he spo!

The downfall over a year ago of the coalition included in both the Popular Unity and in the including the CL's John McCarthy, is simply a government in Chile headed by Salvador Allende government. In addition, Allende is continu­ desperate denial of the facts. At the time of was not merely a bloody and tragic confirmation ally obliged to negotiate with the majority the 4 September 1970 elections which brought it of the bankruptcy of reformism. The betrayals of bloc in a parliament dominated by the . to power the UP included the Socialist Party, the Unidad PopulQP (UP), which in the absence of Christian Democratic party, which permitted Communist Party, Radical Party, Social-Democratic a revolutionary party was able to lead the him to be elected and which can paralyse any­ Party, MAPU (United People's Action movement) and Chilean workers and peasants to a massacre in thing he undertakes whenever it chooses. API (Independent People's Action). The API was a the September 11 1973 military coup, gave a dra­ Finally -- and this is decisive -- the class small bourgeois formation in the right wing of matic negative proof of the validity of the bol­ collaborationist nature of the coalition was the UP which had its origins in the movement of shevik program of intransigent opposition to the determined by its acceptance of the capitalist ex-dictator Carlos Ibanez del Campo in the 1950s. UP, a coalition of reformist workers' organis­ system and bourgeois state apparatus." (In­ The Radical Party is a classical liberal bour­ ations with representatives of the ruling class. tercontinental Press, 21 February 1972) geois party, in the words Qf IMT expert on Chile When the Chilean proletariat succeeds in throwing After the coup, however, something seems to have JP Beauvais "the third influential component of off the depraved butchers of General Pinochet's changed. The UP was now a "workers government", the coalition, representing the liberal sections military Junta, it will open a .evolutionary albeit reformist (Militant (newspaper of the CL) of the small and middle bourgeoisie" (Intercon­ period which will end either in the dictatorship special supplement on Chile, October 1973), and tinental Press, 10 May 1971). of the proletariat or a new defeat so severe that it is likely to destroy the possibility of the IMT declared: After its electoral support was cut in half in revolution in Chile for a generation, as did the "Of course, the Allende regime possesses the elections of April 1971, Radical Party cabi­ net ministers offered to resign but significant­ victory of Hitler in Germany or Franco in Spain. several features [I] of a Popular Front ly, Allende rejected the offer. The evaporation But the revolution can be victorious only if a government, of collaboration with bourgeois of its base of support due to the polarisation of bolshevik party is forged in Chile which has as­ parties. But, from the start, it differed th.e bourgeoiSie against the UP in response to similated the lessons of the UP and can prevent from the classical Popular Front regime by the growing mobilisation of the working class led to a repetition of its betrayals. fact that it, openly proclaimed its resolve to the exit of an important group of parliamen­ enter on the'road to socialism, and that it At a time when it is vital to clarify and tarians in late 1971 and the adoption of increas­ openly based itself on the organized workers understand these lessons the pseudo.-Trotskyist ingly "socialist" rhetoric. :.fcCarthy and Mandel movement .... "United Secretariat of the Fourth International" also claim that the Radicals joined the Second "What was revealed in Chile is, therefore, has perpetrated enormous confusion in its attempt International. But this could only be a purely more [I] a new demonstration of the bankruptcy to justify precisely' an opportunist adaptation t9 the popular front. The USec, is divided into two of reformism, ie, of the 'peaceful' road, hostile camps, the centrist International Ma­ within the framework of the institutions of jority Tendency (IMT) headed by Ernest I·landel and parliamentary bourgeois democracy, without the reformist-legalist "Leninist-Trotskyist the destruction of the bourgeois state appar­ Faction" inspired by the Socialist Workers Party atus, than an experience of coalition govern­ ment with the bourgeoisie." (Draft Political (SWP) of the US (co-thinkers of the Australian Socialist Workers League), which have exactly op­ Resolution of the International Executive Com­ posite analyses of the character of the UP. The mittee Majority Tendency, published in SWP In­ SWP has attempted to maintain the "orthodox" ternational Internal Discussion Bulletin vol X Trotskyist view that governments such as the UP no 20, October ~973) (emphasis in original) are analogous to the Stalinist-inspired Popular How strange that ~d 1971 the USec hadn't noticed Fronts of the 1930s, most notably in Spain and the UP IS "open re,so'l ve to enter on the road to France. Were the SWP's orthodoxy genuine (which socialism", or that it "openly based itself on it is not) it would be led to condemn as class the organised workers movement". However, this treachery the USec majority position. But that mystery turns out to have a simple solution: ,would be quite awkward: included in the LTF is neither statement is true! The UP resolved to the Argentinian Partido Socialista de los enter on the road to socialism -- but for the UP Trabajadores (PST) which has committed itself to the "road to socialism" meant bourgeois democracy respect the "institutional process" of bourgeois for the indefinite future; and the UP openly democracy and has scandalously pandered to the based itself on an alliance of the workers move­ semi-Bonapartist, reactionary Peronist regime ment with left bourgeois parties and the reac­ (see Workers VanguQPd no 49, 19 July 1974 and tionary military officer corps. no 57, 22 November 1974). The SWP itself was chiefly responsible for directing the anti­ Why this 'abrupt reversal? The nIT -USec has Fidel Castro reviewing elite troops of Chilean Vietnam War movement in the US into a popular­ not been forthcoming with an ~xplanation, but the army: "There was never any contradiction between there is a good reason: early in 1973 the then the conceptions of the Cuban Kevolution and the fronti~t bloc with the liberal wing of US i~­ perialism. French Section of the USec (and part of the I~T), paths being followed by the left movement and the Ligue Communiste, had supported the Union of workers' parties in Chile." (photo: 2unto Final) The IMT, represented in Australia by the the Left -- a popular-front coalition of the Communist League (CL), has recently consolidated Socialist Party, the Communist Party and the formal affiliation, to something which moreover and extended its new "analysis" that the UP was small, bourgeois Left Radicals -- in the French has no real existence. Chiang Kai Shek, shortly not a popular front at all, and ridicules as elections. In order to justify their open ca­ before he crushed the Shanghai general strike in "sectarian", "unrealistic" or "dogmatic" those pitulation to class collaboration in France it 1927, was an honorary member of the Comintern who say otherwise. But those in the IMT were not was necessary to revise the entire Trotskyist and even participated in the 1926 Plenum of its always so sure of their "realities"; until after analysis of the popular front and thus to reject Executive Committee but that scarcely made the the military coup, the USec held the self-same their own previous policy toward the UP. But in­ Kuomintang a workers' party. As for the avowals "unrealistic" and "dogmatic" view. In December consistency is the unavoidable political overhead of socialism, by this criterion one would have to 1971 the USec unanimously adopted a resolution of opportunism. include in the workers movement the military which, while it contains errors and ambiguities, junta in Peru, Peron in Argentina, or "socialist" not only characterises the UP as a "popular The "theories" generated by the IMT-USec-CL Prince Sihanouk. front" but specifically refutes some of its own develop four sometimes contradictory kinds of ar­ The MAPU originated as a petty-bourgeois later arguments: guments: that there were no bourgeois parties in splinter from the Christian Democrats and has the UP; that the presence of bourgeois elements is "The questiol1 arises as to whether the Allende since undergone a number of splits. One of the irrelevant because the workers' parties "had products (the Garreton-Aquevedo wing) has moved government is a popular front government in hegemony"; that the historical lessons of the traditional sense of the term. It has far to the left, and has called for the dictator­ ,especially the Spanish popular front in the ship of the proletariat. However the other wing, been argued that the bourgeoisie as such, re­ 1930s do not apply because,of different objec­ presented by the Christian Democrats and to a MAPU Obrero-Campesino led by Gazmuri, was in the tive or subjective conditions; and that the' UP right wing of the UP and notably sees as its lesser degree by the National Party, is not had a socialist program while in the past popular directly represented 'in the government. But, major difference with the Christian Democrats the fronts have not Cor at least that the UP used more latter's rejection of alliance with the reformist even leaving aside the fact that at least one -- and more explicit -- socialist rhetoric than of the coalition was traditionally a bourgeois workers' parties (Intercontinental Press, 21 its historical antecedents). party, the bourgeoisie exercises its influence October 1974). But most importantly, a section through the petty-bourgeois parties that were The first of these, put forward by some IMTers of the MAPU's top leadership led by Minister of Agriculture Jacques Chonchol left the MAPU and joined up with a group of left-wing Christian Five dollars -- one year subscription to enclose: Democrats to form the Izquierda Cristiana (Chris­ publ ications of the Spartacist League of $5.00 (al I publ ications). tian Left), a bourgeois party of the left Australia and New Zealand and the Spartacist [J $3.00 (WORKERS VANGUARD). Ehristian-Democrat nationalist stamp -- and League of the United States. Includes: [J ell [J $1.00 (AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST). Chonchol remained a minister in the UP govern­ AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST, REVOLUTIONARY ment. Radicals and/or IC members remained in the ~ COMMUNIST BULLETIN series, and other Overseas (ASp only -- Austral ian currency) cabinet throughout, not to mention the generals publ ications of the SLANZ. [J $3.50 (a irma i I ) . who occupied three cabinet posts from November .- [J $1.50 (surface mai I). 1972 to March 1973 and were brought in again .. WORKERS VANGUARD (SLUS fortnightly). briefly after,the first attempted military coup YOUNG SPARTACUS (6 issues). in July 1973. Or did the "hegemony" of the U working-class reformists miraculously transform (I) WOMEN AND REVOLUTION (about 3 issues). NAME the class character of the chief of staff of. the ADDRESS------______SPARTACIST (occasional international Chilean armed forces? journa I). CITY STATE ______Revisionists, who like to think. their theories ~ are novel discoveries, usually end up repeating :I Three dollars -- one year subscription to POSTCODE------the renegades of the past. The IMT-USec has un~ WORKERS VANGUARD (24 issue~~. intentionally reinvented almost word for word the (I) mail to: Spartacist League, same excuses for capitulating to the popular front One dollar -- one year subscription to GPO Box 3473, as those invoked by the centrist POUM (Workers AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST (12 issues). Sydney, NSW, 2001. Party of Marxist Unification) to explain its par­ ticipation in the bourgeois republican popular I Page Four - AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST. December 1974 • • utlonary strategy In Chile \

front gov.ernment during the Spanish Civil War: without even bothering to participate in the " ... the [Catalonian] left republiqm movement Popular Front. The overwhelming majority of [the Esquerra, Catalan liberal bourgeois party the exploiters of all political shades openly headed by Companys] is of a profoundly popular went over to the camp of Franco. Without any nature , .. and the peasant masses and workers' theory of 'permanent revolution,' the Spanish sections on which it is based are moving de­ bourgeoisie understood from the outset that finitely toward the revolution, influenced by the rev.olutionary mass movement, no matter how the proletarian parties and organizations. it starts, is directed against private owner­ The important thing is the programme, and the ship of land and the means of production, and hegemony of the proletariat, which must be that it is utterly impossible to cope with guaranteed .... As for proletarian hegemony, this movement by democratic measures. the absolute majority of workers' represen­ "That is why only insignificant debris from tatives [in the coalition government] will the possessing classes remained in the repub­ make it fully certain." (18 Sept'ember 1936 lican camp: Messrs Azana, Companys, and the statement of the POUM Central Committee, like -- political attorneys of the bourgeoisie quoted in Felix Morrow, RevoLution and but not the bourgeoisie itself. Having staked rev Counter-revoLution in spain, p 54) everything ona military dictatorship, the tort those lessons in order to prot~t their pre­ The USec is travelling down the same road as the possessing classes were able, at the same tence of Trotskyism. According to the IMT-USec, POUM, and that road ends in class-collaboration­ time, to make use of their political represen­ the UP was "different" from the popular front in ist betrayal. tativesof yesterday in order to paralyse, Spain; its talk of "entering the road to sociaL­ The USec "theory" of "working-class hegemony" disorganise, and aft,erward strangle the ism" supposedly "proves" it was not a popular in the UP is based on crass empiricism and ex­ socialist movement o'f the masses in 'repub­ front, because this rhetoric plains nothing. If indeed the presence of the lican' territory. "corresponded to a greater depth of the mobil­ bourgeois elements in the coalition was irrel­ "Without in the slightest degree representing isation and the revolutionary consciousness of evant, why were they included in the first place? the Spanish bourgeoisie, the left republicans the masses [in Chile], especially under the And why did Allende continually strive to retain still less represented the workers and influence of the victory of the Cuban revol­ them in the government? The answer was made peasants. They represented no one but them­ ution, and of a stronger far-left vanguard. clear by the reformists and the Stalinists them­ selves. Thanks, however, to their allies -­ The traditional workers parties could not selves right from the beginning: to serve as a the Socialists, Stalinists, and Anarchists -- channelize and apply brakes to the ardor of pledge to the bourgeoisie that the reformists 'these political phantoms played the decisive the masses unless they asserted their willing­ would not challenge capitalism. One of the be?t­ role in the revolution. How? Very simply. ness to enter on the road to socialism .... known spokesmen for the CP, Pablo Neruda, said By incarnating the principLes of the demo­ The working class was more and more radical­ following the 1970 elections: crati~ revolution, that is, the inviolability ised. It began to create organs of dual "There is no reason at all to be uneasy. We of private property." (Trotsky, The Spanish power, to arm itself .... " have never claimed that we would form a Revolution, pp 309-310) (emphasis added) Most of this is flatly wrong: the 1930s French socialist government on November 4. Allende Not only are the lessons of history lost on Continued on page seven himself has said: Popular Unity is composed six different groups including the kadicals who have largely dominated Chilean political life for the last thirty years." (quoted in Le 14onde, 23 October 1970) Melbourne CL/SWLsabotage Chile defence Other examples of such statements could easily b~ found. The socialist rhetoric of the SP and CP The military junta in Chile has systematically' including Chileans participated. The SWL was were used to tie the workers to this bloc which persecuted thousands,of working-class militants. able to overcome its fear of Spartacist sec­ repudiated socialism. Al1enue openly proclaimed In response to massive recent round-ups, the tarianism sufficiently to send a Direct Action the programmatic sub9rdination of the workers' Spartacist League initiated a call for demon- sales team, though they declined to speak at the parties to the explic.itly non-socialist program ,strations in defence of Chilean political rally (preferring, they said, to "wait and see"). of the UP: . ·_ ...

AUSTRALASIA~ SPARTACIST December 1974 - Page Five CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE was done with the State Industrial Commission CPA's brand of reformism; not the intrinsic merit decision requiring Watts to reinstate the sacked (or lack thereof) of the green bans; and cer­ NSWIT workers. Even in these cases it is essen­ tainly not the charges and countercharges of BLF ..• tial to warn that it is fatal to trust in the corruption, mismanagement and so on thrown back Both Gallagher and the NSW officials have con­ courts to discipline members of the class they and forth. It stems from the growing conserva­ tinually sought court injunctions against each serve -- and indeed, Watts simply ignored the tism of the entrenched Federal BLF officialdom / other. On 21 October the NSW BLF officials court decision. But to invite the bosses' courts who, in order to maintain their position in a "succeeded" in obtaining a temporary injunction to act against anyone -- no matter how vile -­ period of increasing pressure from the bosses, fro~ the Equity Court restraining Gallagher from within the labour movement is as much a betrayal are compelled to smash all opposition, no matter setting up a new branch until a .full hearing on as Gallagher's bloc with the MBA. Not only does how mild, to their control of'the union. It is the (bourgeois) "legality" of the takeover, at­ it accept and encourage the "right" of the -_.. only a more extreme expression of reformist tempting to get the bourgeois state on side capitalist state to regulate the internal affairs 'aspirations also shared by Owens/Pringle. The against Gallagher's scabbing. Gallagher has of of the workers movement, but it makes it imposs­ NSW BLF bureaucracy has had to develop its own, course ignored the injunction, and lately the NSW ible to appeal for a united front of workers distinct brand of class collaboration (mixed Branch officials have been backing off from the against the class enemy. with militant trade-unionism) epitomised by the immediate implications of their legal moves by The obscene pandering to the bourgeois state Mundey utopian-reformist "" philosophy refraining from demanding enforcement of the practised by both sides clearly demonstrates that and, isolated from the rest of the union bureauc­ court order so as not to make Gallagher a "mar­ both Gallagher and the NSW Branch leadership racy by its history and circumstance~has been tyr" (The NSW Builder's Labourer, 2S October operate from the same class-collaborationist compelled to act more militantly on behalf of the 1974). principles in what amounts to a dispute between membership to maintain its position. The green Revolutionaries can have no objection in prin­ two wings'of the reformist bureaucracy. The ban philosophy, far from being the main target of ciple to using the courts, a part of the capital­ source of Gallagher's frenzy against the NSW the MBA or the capitalist class generally, is now ,ist state apparatus, against the employers, as Branch is not the ideology of versus the accepted even by right-wing capitalists such as Keith Campbell of Hooker Corporation Ltd and Sir William Pentingell (Financial Review, 20 November counterposed, because the trade-union defense CONTINUED FRor~ PAGE EIGHT 1974). What the bosses oppose in the green bans guards do not exist. The Black community is their character as political strikes, a weapon lives in the real world, and it demands real, they want to take away from~he working class. Racist terror. meaningful solutions, not unrealistic • • slogans." The NSW BLF has received some support in campaign. Peter Camejo of the SII'P countered unions in addition to the FEDFA, including Postal with ... a teach-in! It is true that there are no trade-union defense Workers and Plumbers in Sydney. At a meeting of guards today. There is also no mass mobilization the AMWU Sydney Central Branch on November 21, a Out of the student meeting came an Ad-Hoc Com­ to defend the black school children, only a half­ mittee to Defend Human Rights. At a meeting of supporter of the Spartacist League raised the hearted demonstration on October 13. But part of following motion: this Ad-Hoc Committee later the same day, the SL the reason for this is that at every point the pointed out that most people in Boston knew SWP has fought against any perspective of inde­ "The Sydney Central Branch of the AMWU stands exactly what was going on and that what was pendent black and labor mobilization. opposed to the union-bashing assault by the needed was independent mass action. To this Federal Management Committee of the Builders' Camejo replied that a teach-in and mass mobiliz­ The demand for a labor/black defense is a Labourers' Federation and the MBA upon the ation are not counterposed (his favorite ar­ world of make-believe? Nonsense! There are NSW BLF branch, the legitimate builders' gument lately, as we shall see). The YSA chair­ integrated unions in Boston, many of whose mem­ labourers' union in NSW. The AMWU must demand man of the meeting soon announced there was "mass bers are directly affected by the racist anti­ that the trade-union movement, and in particu­ sentiment" for a teach-in. But when an SL member busing mobilizations. Members of the Meatcutters lar the NSW Labor Council and the ACTU, ac­ objected and proposed instead a letter calling and Butcher Workmen have had their cars damaged tively defend the NSW Branch through indus­ for a mass demonstration, to be drafted by a com­ by the reactionary mobs. The Columbia Point trial action against attacks on the union by mittee, this proposal was accepted. SWP/YSAers residents have already had their fill of the the MBA, such as the sackings at the Broad­ were on the letter committee. bourgeoisie's cops and troops. What is needed is way Institute of Technology site .... The revoZutionary leadership, to put the heat on the The next week a leaflet mysteriously appeared, leaders of the mass organizations of workers and obviously produced by the SWP/YSA but bearing the the oppressed racial minorities, to organize in­ name of the Ad-Hoc Committee and calling for a dependently on a program which represents the CONTINUED FROM PAGE THREE meeting on October 16 to plan a teach-in. No interests of the working masses. such teach-in had been decided upon at the earlier meeting! Moreover, the leaflet was And if Camejo thiriks workers' defense guards • • • Samarakkody and federal troops are not counterposed, then let "signed" by Ujimaa and the Puerto Rican Student of the trade unions and these other groups. That him try to organize a labor/black defense when Union, neither of which knew anything about the is roughly the situation in Ceylon today. teach-in and protested the use of their names. ~/ \ WV: How do you see the struggle for the rebirth At the October 16 meeting, an SL spokesman ... ~~ ~~.. of the Fourth International? presented a motion that all groups participating .... ,... \" ~ in the Ad-lloc Committee be given equal speaking / ~~\.t.a\.'" ~~ \a~~ \ Samarakkody: It is a fact that for quite some rights, with an open mike for independents, at 1 ~.. a '\...... "aa~~ time, as far as the RWP was concerned, we have any teach-in. Tony Thomas of the SWP opposed this been convinced that there is no Fourth Inter­ on the grounds that "the people" wanted to hear ,1~\\.\1"" .. '4 ...... \~ national today. This organization that was begun from the "leaders of the black community", not .. ' ",o~n\' 6."y" ... \ \0 " . by Trotsky in 1938 and had for several years de­ the radicals. . .~ pre".rS.\d.~n\ ,e ~e\~ veloped in the perspective of a revolutionary .\ 'Iifor ~i'\"""'''. .. I:.:~,:.\,.t..••,., . " international, is no longer a reality. Over the The SL pointed out that these so-called years this organization has degenerated, Start­ leaders were calling for federal troops. Since . TMi"t.\ILiTAMT .' .. ,,.,,,.,.,, ... ".' ", .... "'"'' .. ' ~ .. ' .... , ing in the 1950s under the leadership of Michel the viewpoint of the SII'P was being represented by Pablo the organization moved along the opportun­ the NAACP and the Black Caucus of the Democratic ist road, and it inevitably has come to a situ­ Party, we supported the SWP's right not to speak. ation when it is possible to say that there is no But different points of view should be permitted 5fOP~L'lNCn \~,~DV· such organization called the Fourth Inter­ since everyone did not agree with the troops .~ national. slogan. The SL motion again passed. S SWP has long tradition a\aCK \eadef ~ The recent split in the United Secretariat is Later in the meeting the SL moved that the of relying on capitalist federa~~oQ~ OO~. ~, army: Selma 1965. a manifestation of this reality. The United Sec­ -committee-drafted letter be accepted. Tony Boston 1974. retariat in point of fact does not exist, It has Thomas presented an amendment "in the spirit of been split into various groups after what is the letter", adding the phrase "and support the SWP has a long tradition of relying on called the Tenth World Congress. By agreement, demands of the Black community". SLers pointed ca~italist army: Selma 1965, Boston 1974. they have decided to remain together without out that this was a veiled call for federal raising any of the issues. Opportunistically, troops and sabotage of building a mobilization to the 82nd Airborne Division is occupying Roxbury! the United Secretariat is posing as the Fourth defend the black school children. The SWP believes that the US government is un­ International. But this lie has to be exposed. At this point Peter Camejo demagogically an­ willing to send troops to Boston to enforce de­ The task of all those who claim to be Trotsky­ nounced that "Spartacist doesn't support the segregation, so demanding that they come will ists is not merely to expose the fraud of the Black community. Everybody that supports the presumably "expose" the real nature of the United Secretariat and all other groups who seek Black community raise your hands." Using such government. It is quite true that they will not to pose as the Fourth International, especially unprincipled sleight-of-hand, the SWP "amendment" enforce racial integration, as we have pointed the International Committee led by Gerry Healy. was passed. out. But the bourgeoisie may very well send in It is the task of all those who claim to be troops -- to prevent any organized defense by Trotskyists to begin right now the task of as­ WHAT IS A "MEANINGFUL SOLUTION"? blacks! By calling for troops, the SWP does not sisting in the rebirth of the Fourth Inter­ expose the class character of the government national. The RWP has for some time been basing The I November issue of the Militant reprints and its hired guns, but helps conceaZ the fact its activities on this perspective. While we are excerpts from a speech by Camejo in which he that these are the enemies of the exploited and building our party in Ceylon, we have sought to "justifies" the slogan of federal troops to Bos­ oppressed. work toward the development of an international ton. In the first place this "reply" to criti­ Members of the SWP, you may feel that the call revolutionary tendency. cism is ostensibly aimed at the Workers League, for labor/black defense of the bused school chil­ In this regard and for some time now we have although the WL has not taken its opposition to dren and Columbia Point is not a "realistic" de­ developed fraternal relations with the Spartacist federal troops any farther than the pages of the mand. But we warn you that your call for federal League of the United States, and it is our hope Bulletin. The only group in Boston which in mass troops is a very "meaningful solution", to use that in the coming period it will be possible for leaflets, public meetings, demonstrations, etc, Peter Camejo's words. What it can mean is the our organizations to work toward this perspec­ has consistently put forward the perspective of imposition of martial law, massive arrests and tive. No doubt there are many problems in this labor/black defense and opposed relying on the shootings of black youth and working-class regard, but these problems will have to be faced. capitalist armed forces is the Spartacist League. militants. Even you admit that the troops will The heart of Camejo's "argument" is that: Also, it is necessary for those who are really not enforce desegregation! interested in the rebirth of the Fourth Inter­ "The call for trade-union defense guards isn't If, because of the betrayals of the union national to understand that with the objective realistic right now. There are no trade leaders, black Democrats and fake socialists, conditions the world over, especially in the con­ unions that even have defense guards, much federal troops are called in to patrol the text of the worsening crisis of world capitalism less any that have offered them to defend the ghettos and housing projects, conscious black and and the possibilities that are opening up for the Black students .... labor militants in Boston will hold those development of revolutionary struggles, the forg­ "You sectarians live in a make-believe world traitors responsible for the consequences of ing of the revolutionary leadership is more ur­ of sloganeering. In your world, trade-union their misleadership. By calling for troops the gent than ever before. It is with this perspec­ defense guards are counterposed to federal SWP shows itself to be a nest of anti-Marxist tive that the Revolutionary Workers Party of Cey- troops. But in the real world, they're not renegades! • lon is functioning today. • . Page Six - AUSTRALASIAN SPARTACIST December 1974 trade-union movement must use its own v1s10n of (non-existent) job-site committees, nored the decision) and because the injunction strength to put a stop to such direct collab­ only after all officials in all unions in the in­ obtained "verifies the present Branch as the only oration with the employers by the Federal BLF dustry have resigned. Implicit in the CL's legal branch of the BLF in NSW. Hopefully this officials. This branch also opposes taking schema is the demand that workers in the BWIU re­ will avert any physical confrontation between ,the disputes within the labour movement into the ject their current. leadership as a precondition labourers .... " (Militant, 21 October 1974) That bosses' courts -- such action only encourages for unification. Amalgamation "from below" is is, if the cops are permitted to defend bourgeois the courts to interfere in union affairs in just as bankrupt a tactic as the united front law and ord~r in the workers movement! order to undermine the unions .... " from below. Clancy and MacDonald of the BWIU The CL's idea of an alternative to the pres­ must be exposed by demonstrating in practice After heated opposition from right-wing elements, ent bureaucrats it denounces as reformist is that it is they who are the obstacle to unifi­ the motion failed by a single vote. really just a more militant reformism. ,The CL cation. To do so it is necessary to support backs the opposition Rank and File Committee The real threat to building workers stems not amalgamation even under the existing rotten re­ (RFC) in the Victorian BLF and has in fact ex­ directly from Gallagher's splitting tactics but formist leadership of both the BWIU and the NSW from the economic downturn which has hit the BLF -- provided only there is no tampering with plicitly endorsed the RFC as a whole in the Mili­ building industry, always an industry highly re­ tant, which has never had a single word of criti­ liant on credit and therefore always dramatically cism for the RFC. But although the CL now pro­ affected by the capitalist business cycle. In claims the absolute necessity of demanding expro­ what is called "the worst slump in the industry priation of industry employers, this has never been part of the RFC program, which consists ex­ in 14 years" (Sydney Morning Herald, 29 October clusively of trade-union reforms not even in­ 1974), the number of houses built or under con­ cluding a sliding scale of hours but stopping struction dropped by SO percent in the first half of the year; by July-August layoffs had short at a call for a 35 hour week -- only in the form endorsed by the ACTU! CL members in the mounted into the thousands; by October, one third of ;>ISW surveying staff had been stood down. Two Victorian BLF have completely liqUIdated into the large building corporations have collapsed into RFC, and do not bother to raise even the CL's bankruptcy, Mainline Corporation (based in limited program at RFC meetings. Sydney) and Perth-based Landall Holdings Ltd. The motley collection of opportunists banded Further widespread retrenchments are expected at together in the RFC, dominated by the refurmist the end of the year. syndicalism of Danny Purcell, is simply a rotten Although Gallagher has severely weakened the in church (left), Norm Gallagher. bloc for the advancement of a new group of more union's ability to act, the key obstacle is the militant-sounding bureaucrats. It now en­ misleadership of all elements of the bureaucracy. the democratic rights prevalent in anyone of compasses anarcho-syndicalist elements, the CPA, The NSW leadership is pushing the campaign for the unions and no sacrifice in the conditions or the CL and the CL's friends in the so-called permanency -- the hiring of building workers on a wages of any section of building workers. "United Secretariat of the Fourth International", permanent rather than a casual basis -- as an The CL has pursued a thoroughly opportunist the Socialist Workers League (SWL). Virtually answer to unemployment. Permanency would by a policy in the BLF. Recently it has apparently the only trade-union work carried out by the SWL, substantial gain for labourers who are victimised discovered the need for nationalisation of the it is a clear indication of what the SWL's re: by casual 'employment conditions, guaranteeing an building industry without compensation under formism looks like transplanted from its favour­ annual wage. It is however no substitute for a workers' control. But prior to the 22 July 1974 ite petty-bourgeois habitat into the unions. SWL sliding scale of hours to retain full employment Militant, the CL published -- twice -- a program supporters in the BLF, Dave Kerin and Alan with no loss in pay, and it will scarcely prevent for the building trades which raised nothing be­ Dalton, produced a leaflet at the end of June on other building firms from going bankrupt in the yond a sliding scale of hours and which did not the BLF's deregistration with the following '~ro­ recession. In order to solve for good the prob­ mention amalgamation (Militant, IS April and 3 gram": "We must show the bosses that their lems of building workers it is necessary to ex­ June 1974). Moreover any claim of the CL to be a threats and bluster will not make us back down propriate the dominant building firms under the revolutionary alternative is exposed as a fraud from our previous policies. We want more of the control of building workers, as well as to ex­ by its failure to criticise the existing BLF per­ same policies ... " -- that's all! Not a single propriate the banks and financial institutions manency scheme and its complete, uncritical en­ further political point was made! Understand­ who continue to thrive even during the decline. dorsement of the Equity Court suits against ably, the coverage of Gallagher's intervention in Owens and company also seek to pass off perma­ Gallagher -- a particularly gross betrayal ex­ NSW in Direct Action, the SWL's paper, has been nency as a form of union hire. In fact, the cused by the CL on the grounds that it will win a completely uncritical of the NSW BLF leadership; scheme they propose has nothing to do with union "two month breathing space" for the NSW BLF (to­ with a program like that the SWL puts Owens and hire at all, but calls instead for Employment tally false, as Gallagher has, predictably, ig- Pringle to their left .• Centres jointly run by the union, the government, and the employers. (The scheme is outl.ined in CO[HINUED FROM PAGE FIVE the ;-')SW BLF dewsletter, September 1974, in the believe in it in large part" (USec Majority same form as sketched in On Sit,F, the broadsheet Resolution on the Electoral Tactics of the FCR, of the Rank and File Committee in the Melbourne Popular front SWP Internal Information Bulletin no 8 in 1974, • • • August 1974). BLF.) Regardless of how many "conditions" are popular front ,also attacked_ the "200 families"; written into the scheme; - urider ~uch anarr